Take a book, leave a book at the Little Free Library

November 1, 2013

MARQUETTE- When it comes to getting a new book to read people usually go to a library or buy it new. But on Silver Creek Road in Harvey it's as easy as going down the street, leaving an old book and picking up a new one.

Outside the home of Heather Naigus sits a house shaped blue book shelf that's full of books for adults and children. It's called the Little Free Library, and the only rule is leave a book, take a book. Naigus said she got the idea from one of her friends downstate.

"It's part of a movement across the world where we look at promoting literacy and building community," Naigus said.

Article Photos

The Little Free Library, a book exchange where anyone can take a book then leave a book, is located on Silver Creek Road in Harvey. (Journal photo by Adelle Whitefoot)

"We have it stocked full of books and people can come grab a book and then leave a book for someone else."

There are two shelves in Naigus's Little Free Library. The top shelf is for adult books and the bottom shelf is for children books. The shelves are stacked full of books such as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," books from the Twilight and Harry Potter series as well as some Stephen King and Dean Koontz for the adults.

"We're hoping that people will put little messages in the books they leave or little notes, that way there's a little message when these books go around to make it more of a personal connection," Naigus said. "The main thing for us is just promoting literacy, the community building and just having something that promotes sharing too."

The Little Free Library is a worldwide charter organization. Anyone can build or buy a box to house books. According to Naigus, anyone wishing to participate can go on littlefreelibrary.org, register their library and then it will be put on a map for everyone to find or use. Naigus said she is 9,883.

"My friend downstate had one and I thought it was amazing and it was really well received," she said. "My grandmother wrote children's adventure books, so I've always been a big supporter of literacy. So when I saw hers, I thought what could be better. I thought it was a win, win."

Naigus said her Little Free Library was ready to go Tuesday and anyone can come by to leave a book and take a new one.

"I'm really hoping that a bunch of them pop up in the community all over. My friend downstate had one, and now there's three," she said. "I hope it will spread like that here and that we'll have Little Free Libraries all over town so kids have access to books."